Let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n
Overview: Email Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing<\/h2>\n
Over the past decade, social media networks have grown exponentially. There are about 4.95 billion active social media users. This is\u00a0a 138.2% jump from 2015<\/a>, when only 2.08 billion people used social networks.<\/p>\n Today, social media is not just a fad but a viable digital marketing channel. Like email, you can use social media to reach your target audience. In fact,\u00a043% of people use social media to research before buying<\/a>.<\/p>\n Social media\u2019s soaring popularity is helping thousands of online brands, especially eCommerce and small business owners. And marketers find themselves asking: will social media replace email?<\/p>\n But rest assured, email is not going anywhere.<\/p>\n When you look at email marketing\u2019s effectiveness, it\u2019s pretty clear that it\u2019s an equally strong contender.<\/p>\n Email and social media aren\u2019t mutually exclusive marketing tools. If you want to stand out in the competition, you have to leverage both\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0email marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are more than 5.3 billion Internet users in the world. As stated earlier, 4.95 billion people have active social media accounts. That\u2019s 61.4% of the world\u2019s population!<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n More than\u00a04.37 billion people across the world also use email<\/a>. You can\u2019t invest in social media marketing at the expense of leaving out email marketing. Email marketing offers benefits that social media still lacks. We\u2019ll talk about the pros and cons of both in the later sections.<\/p>\n Here are\u00a0some interesting stats on email usage<\/a>:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how the data looks for people who prefer social media:<\/p>\n Social media isn\u2019t too far behind email in usage.<\/p>\n However, a better measure of each platform is how people use them in relation to their online buying habits.<\/p>\n According to HubSpot\u2019s findings,\u00a028% of consumers subscribe to a brand\u2019s email list to receive promotional messages<\/a>.<\/p>\n The number is more favorable for social media.\u00a068% of customers say that they follow brands on social media to stay informed about new products<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is great news for social media marketers!<\/p>\n Do you know what the most popular social media platforms are by user count?\u00a0Here are the stats<\/a>.<\/p>\n What about email? According to stats,\u00a0Gmail tops the list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Next, let\u2019s break down the\u00a0data by age group<\/a>.<\/p>\n The common notion in marketing is that Gen Z doesn\u2019t prefer email as much as social media. But these numbers prove otherwise. They are only slightly behind Millennials and Gen X in terms of their email usage.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s see how social media fares in comparison. The number varies from platform to platform, but\u00a0here\u2019s a broader view<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unlike email users, the age gap and their usage preferences are pretty wide for social media followers. Not surprisingly, the 20-29-year-old age cohort is the largest user of social media.<\/p>\n To be fair, your potential customers might use these channels very differently. For instance, women aged 18-29 are the most likely to make purchases based on influencer content.<\/p>\n What does this mean for businesses? Gen Z likes subscribing to email newsletters as much as they love consuming social media content.<\/p>\n But be careful not to take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, use customer segmentation to target specific demographics and\u00a0psychographics<\/a>\u00a0to maximize your marketing efforts.<\/p>\n Pro-tip:<\/strong>\u00a0Learn about\u00a050 smart ways to segment your audience<\/a>\u00a0so you can target your message to achieve higher conversion rates, regardless of the channel you use.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to bucket the average engagement rate of social media as a whole. Instead, here\u2019s\u00a0a breakdown of engagement rates<\/a>\u00a0by the leading social media channels.<\/p>\n Your social media reach depends on platform-specific algorithms. Recently,\u00a0LinkedIn changed its algorithms<\/a>\u00a0to prioritize posts that share \u201cknowledge and insights.\u201d<\/p>\n Organic reach in social media is growing tricky by the day. The more followers you gain, the harder it is to reach new customers.<\/p>\n Some of this is deliberate. Social media platforms are\u00a0becoming a pay-to-play landscape<\/a>\u00a0because they want to monetize distribution.<\/p>\n In the context of email, there\u2019s no such thing as organic reach. Instead, you can measure your email marketing campaigns through other important metrics:<\/p>\n The number of email subscribers is unique to a brand or how effective their\u00a0email optin campaigns<\/a>\u00a0are.<\/p>\n The\u00a0average email click-through rate is 2.6-3%<\/a>. Similarly, the\u00a0average email deliverability rate is 85.7%<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0average email unsubscribe rate across all industries is 0.26%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brands that send too many emails usually have a higher unsubscribe rate. Anything\u00a0less than 0.50% is a healthy metric<\/a>.<\/p>\n Across most industries, the\u00a0acceptable benchmark for email bounce rate is 2%<\/a>. But it\u2019s not uncommon for brands to have a 5-10% bounce rate.<\/p>\n And finally, the\u00a0average email open rate across industries is 21.33%<\/a>.<\/p>\n The verdict:<\/strong>\u00a0Email and social media have different reach potential. You can\u2019t compare them both because of the different nuances involved in growing an email list vs growing a social media following.<\/p>\n But you can use opt-in campaigns to grow both, your social media followers and email subscribers.<\/p>\n Did you know?<\/strong>\u00a0OptinMonster is the best\u00a0lead generation<\/a>\u00a0software that can help you monetize your website traffic. Learn how OptinMonster can help you\u00a0get more email subscribers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0grow your social media followers<\/a>!<\/p>\n Do emails work to drive sales? Yes, especially if you use emails to send promotional offers.<\/p>\n Research says\u00a067% of consumers are more likely to buy from emails that include a coupon or discount<\/a>.<\/p>\n But wait. Research says that\u00a076% of customers are likely to purchase products they see in a brand\u2019s social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, driving sales with social media can be challenging.<\/p>\n Deals and discounts are other factors that drive sales, especially in eCommerce. So where do brands go to promote their\u00a0holiday campaigns<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Black Friday sales<\/a>?<\/p>\n Email is usually their go-to channel.<\/p>\n 60% of buyers say they buy after receiving marketing emails from brands<\/a>.<\/p>\n With social media, that number is higher.\u00a090% of people buy from brands they follow on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n But like we stated above, social media marketing isn\u2019t as scalable as email.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot more you can do with\u00a0email marketing<\/a>\u00a0to improve your conversion metrics.<\/p>\n For example, you can\u00a0create urgency in your marketing<\/a>\u00a0emails to further boost conversions. Using limited-time offers, flash sales, or countdown timers in email campaigns creates\u00a0fear of missing out (FOMO)<\/a>\u00a0in people.<\/p>\n Using countdown timers is a smart conversion hack.\u00a0Cosmetic Capital<\/a>\u00a0used OptinMonster to create a countdown timer on their floating bar and\u00a0increased leads by 300%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember, marketing emails don\u2019t get good click-through rates if they aren\u2019t optimized for clicks. A few tips to\u00a0improve your email click-through rates<\/a>\u00a0are:<\/p>\n Pro-tip:<\/strong>\u00a0Emails landing in spam can also affect low click-through rates. If you don\u2019t want your email marketing campaigns to land in spam, read through these useful resources:<\/p>\n Bottom line:<\/strong>\u00a0While social media is emerging as a promising channel to drive sales online, email marketing continues its streak as a bankable conversion channel.<\/p>\n There are different metrics to measure the effectiveness of any given channel. Most marketers agree that measuring the overall return on investment (ROI) of a channel is the most effective.<\/p>\n So which channel is more cost-effective: email marketing or social media?<\/p>\n The stats keep fluctuating from one year to another. Currently, the\u00a0average ROI of email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent<\/a>. This means you get 36 times the return for every dollar you spend on an email marketing campaign.<\/p>\n What about the ROI for social media marketing?<\/p>\n It\u2019s tricky to calculate the ROI for social media marketing because it\u2019s mostly organic. Experts place the\u00a0ROI of paid social media marketing at $2.80<\/a>\u00a0for every dollar spent.<\/p>\n It\u2019s much easier to calculate the ROI by specific social media platforms. According to HubSpot’s\u00a02023 Social Media Trends Report<\/a>, here\u2019s the ROI each social media platform offers:<\/p>\n Clearly, social media marketing offers so much more than email in terms of ROI. We suggest you increase your marketing budget on social but use email marketing to improve your marketing potential.<\/p>\n Pro-tip:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you manage different social media profiles across different platforms? Read our post on the\u00a0best social media management tools<\/a>\u00a0to simplify your social media marketing.<\/p>\n Email marketing and social media marketing aren\u2019t the same, and you shouldn\u2019t see them as replacements.<\/p>\n Instead, incorporate both as an integral part of your\u00a0content marketing strategy<\/a>. Here are ways each of them can be used together for better results:<\/p>\n Email marketing is perfect for\u00a0lead generation<\/a>,\u00a0customer engagement<\/a>, and\u00a0driving sales<\/a>\u00a0through promotions.<\/p>\n Social media is great for creating brand awareness,\u00a0running giveaways<\/a>, and\u00a0driving traffic to your website<\/a>. You can do that organically by\u00a0making your content go viral<\/a>\u00a0or by paying for\u00a0social media ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n The type of content you share on these platforms also makes a difference. Social is best for leveraging\u00a0user-generated content<\/a>. Email is perfect for\u00a0coupon marketing<\/a>, sharing product updates, and monthly newsletters.<\/p>\n For best results, integrate them both into your marketing strategy. Use social networks to drive visitors to your website. And leverage the automation capabilities of an email marketing platform like\u00a0Constant Contact<\/a>\u00a0to engage meaningfully with subscribers.<\/p>\n Need a headstart to boost your email conversions and signups?\u00a0Get started with OptinMonster<\/a>.<\/p>\n Do you have any thoughts about social media vs. email marketing? Share them with us in the comments!<\/p>\nEmail Marketing vs. Social Media Usage<\/h2>\n
![\"email](\"https:\/\/optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/email-vs-social_social-media-usage-.jpg\")
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Top 5 Social Media Platforms Ranked by Monthly Active Users (MAUs)<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTop 5 Most Popular Email Service Providers<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nGlobal Usage of Email by User Age Group<\/h3>\n
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Worldwide Social Media Usage by Age Group<\/h3>\n
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Which Has Better Reach: Email or Social Media?<\/h2>\n
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Which Drives More Sales: Email or Social Media?<\/h2>\n
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Email Marketing ROI vs. Social Media ROI<\/h2>\n
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Which One Is Better: Social Media Marketing or Email Marketing?<\/h2>\n
![\"social](\"https:\/\/optinmonster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/email-vs-social_comparison-.jpg\")
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